The Republic of Panama is the country with the greatest merchant navy in the world. This is due to:
- An open system to register ships.
- Its favourable legislation
- The simplification of its system processes.
- The existence of the Panama Canal and in general terms the multiple amounts of choices that are offered.
We as Midland Counselors at Law have the capacity to offer you legal services for registering ships with the Panamanian flag, maritime registrations, naval mortgages, charter contract, and merchandise transportation, among others.
Required documents to request and execute ship registrations
Any person who would like to register a ship under the Panamanian flag should meet the following requirements:
- A sales and acceptation contract of the sale on the purchaser’s behalf.
- A constructor’s certificate and acceptation of delivery on the owner’s behalf. ( for new ships)
- Cancellation certificate for the previous registration. This document should state that the boat has already cancelled the previous registration. The same is issued by the competent authorities of the merchant navy from the country where the boat cancelled its registration. (It is not required if it is a new boat)
- Power of attorney on the owner’s behalf empowering the representation of the boat with the authorities of the Republic of Panama.
- Tonnage certificate issued by the classifier company of the boat, in favour of the Republic of Panama, according to the dispositions of the International Agreement about boats tonnage from 1969.
- Copy of the contract of service signed with the company that will administrate the radio account.
- Radio request duly completed.
The documents indicated in the articles number 1, 2, 3 and 4 should be duly notarised and the notary’s signature should be duly legalised by the Panamanian consular officer in the country it was issued or apostilled according to the agreement called La Haya from 1961. The procedure of registering a boat with the Panamanian flag takes a day to complete.
Likewise we require you to provide the following documents to complete the respective forms:
- Name that the boat is going to use in the Panamanian Registry;
- Current name;
- Nationality to which they are renouncing;
- Owner name and address;
- Name of the authority in charge of the radio account;
- Place of construction;
- Year of construction;
- Name of the constructors;
- Number of decks, masts and funnels;
- Material of the cask;
- Dimensions;
- Tonnage;
- Service of the boat;
- Engine’s number;
- Trade mark of the constructors;
- The boat’s velocity;
- Horsepower amount and number of cylinders in each engine;
- Name of the classifier company;
- To confirm the kind of letter in the calls (radio-telegraphs, radiotelegraphic or both).
Once we receive the remittance and all the requested information, we can proceed to present the application in the Merchant Marine General direction’s office and we proceed with the corresponding payments.
The Merchant Marine General direction proceeds to issue the provisional patent which is valid for three months. During this period of time the original documents we mentioned above need to be sent to our offices, so that the Merchant Marine General direction proceeds to issue the permanent patent.
